5G Auction Day 3 Updates; 5G Airwaves Bidding Cross Rs. 1.49 Lakh Crores

The auctions for the 5G network spectrum in India are currently underway. On the day of the auction, a total of Rs. 1.45 lakh crores worth of spectrum was bought by telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Airtel, Vi, and Adani, with Jio submitting the highest earnest money deposit. Now, on day three of the auction, the Indian government has collected over Rs. 1.49 lakh crores.

Jio, Airtel, Vi, Adani Spend Rs. 1.49 Lakh Crores

Till the 10th round of bidding for the 5G airwaves, telecom operators including Jio, Airtel, Vi, and Adani have spent Rs. 1.49 crores. During the ongoing 5G spectrum sale, Reliance Jio's estimated spending for the high-speed airwaves has jumped to approximately a whopping Rs. 84,300 crores.
The company is likely to be acquiring 130 units of the 3.3GHz to 3.37GHz mid-band. In addition, Jio has reportedly shown a heavy interest in purchasing the pricey 700MHz spectrum.

Bharti Airtel has estimated to have spent around Rs. 46,000 crores on the 5G airwaves so far, while the Vodafone Idea (Vi) spent around Rs. 19,000 crores. As for the newcomer Adani, its bids are around Rs. 900 to Rs. 1,000 crores for the high-band spectrum. Notably, Reliance Jio is the only telco, which has bought spectrum in the costlier 700GHz band which will give it an edge over the other operators in the country.

Telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has expressed happiness for the response toward the coveted 700MHz bands. These bands didn't find any interest in the last spectrum auctions held in 2016 and 2021. As per the government, the exact details of the 5G spectrum auctions will only be released once the bid for the 5G airwaves is complete very soon. The government expects that the total bids for the 5G spectrum could go up to two lakh crores by the end of the auction.

5G Services Could Start By October

The telecom department is aiming to allocate the 5G spectrum to the bidders by August 14 or August 15 time frame. The government has reportedly promised to allocate the spectrum in a speedy manner. The reports indicate that the 5G services in the country could kick off by the September-October timeframe.

They will be first released in 13 cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Gurugram, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Jamnagar, Kolkata, and Lucknow. We should have more details in the coming days, so stay tuned to Gizbot for regular updates.